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Thursday, January 09, 2003

Curb Your Enthusiasm Here's The New Republic on Larry David and Curb Your Enthusiasm.  Comedy used to be about the iron, the ancient Greek word for the original little guy, who appeared in classical comedy puncturing the sometimes just maddening, sometimes harmful pretensions of the big guy. It set the spiritual order right by turning the social order upside down. But Larry David has returned the social order to its upright position by standing comedy on its head. For perhaps the first time in the history of the genre, he has put comedy on the side of the big guy. Interesting. As funny as this show is, and it is really very funny, everyone who has watched it knows how exasperating it as and how uncomfortable it can make you. TNR makes the point that David is worth close to $500 million, so he's no little guy. Unlike his antecedent, George Costanza on Seinfeld. 10:31:13 PM  Permalink  comment []

George W. Bush Paper Dolls From Buzzflash, W paper dolls. This is funny; I actually have the book of George H. W. Bush and his family paper dolls, available from the Bush Library at Texas A&M. The book is a riot; George and Barbara are in their underwear (he wears briefs, she a slip) and you can put all sort of costumes on them: lying CIA chief, lying ("I was out of the loop") Vice President, sleezy ("bozo") candidate. They were out of stock on it when I was at the library, and it's no longer mentioned in the web site, but they also once had a "Desert Storm Coloring Book." 9:20:37 PM  Permalink  comment []

The Art of Lesbian Pulp Fiction. Angie was a marked woman , paying her own ransom with a body none could resist. Someone has spent an incredible amount of time and energy scanning in lesbian pulp fiction covers from the 50's and 60's. An interesting look into what was considered titillating 40 years ago. [MetaFilter] Fantastic! 7:10:59 PM  Permalink  comment []

The Secret War on Condoms. Conservative groups in President Bush's support base have declared war on condoms, in a campaign that, if successful, could lead to millions of deaths from AIDS around the world. By Nicholas D. Kristof. [New York Times: Opinion] 6:49:54 PM  Permalink  comment []

Monse Down past Brewster Flat, down below Ofir grade was a little town of Monse. When I was a kid there was a pellet mill there, and a Catholich church where our priest said mass on Sunday after doing it at the church in Brewster (or maybe before). I remember going to an Easter service there once. I don't remember ever seeing the popoulation sign as higher than 12. Now Monse is for sale, I guess it's kind of a trend. Monse sits on the Okanogan river below the "space station" on Brewster Flat. When I was in the sixth grade, Comsat built a huge dish-antenna there, just a couple miles from our apple orchard. It was pretty exciting. They chose the reason because there wasn't much radio noise there. When I returned a couple years ago, I was really surprised to see a slug of new antennae around the old one. The Okanogan Times has a very interesting piece on the history of this setup, with some pictures. 9:09:05 AM  Permalink  comment []

© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.